Eastchurch Kitten (A.8.C. Gnat).
Vtckers Vino Armstrong Siddeley Lynx).
Lynx Major-powered Blackburn Uncock Ills in China.
Grain Kitten (A.B.C. Gnat).
LIGH
A Note on their Possibilities
D.H.77 (Nof>ier Holford Rapier).
Vickers Venom (Bristol Aquila).
THE interest occasioned by the recent disclosure that Folland Aircraft are well advanced with the design of a very light "utility" fighter, described as supersonic,
and capable of being built quickly and cheaply, prompts
some thoughts on fighters of this class.
The light fighter concept is by no means new. For 35 years
at least the designers of several countries have sought, for one
reason or another, to save size, weight and complication, and
consequently, to reduce cost and man-hours.
In the continued absence of Government contracts, proto
types of the new Folland fighter—designed by Mr. W. E. W.
Petter—are being built as a private venture, and the company
is convinced that armament, equipment and flying qualities
will prove fully adequate for most of the functions of the
larger, heavier single-seaters. In speed and climb, it is
thought, these more costly types should be equalled or even
surpassed.
The new fighter is described by its makers as "a radical
approach to the problem of weight-saving"; they add their
belief that conventional attempts to reduce weight can pro
duce no very great overall saving in the future—that the best
results will come from a completely fresh start. Implicit in
their plans is the need for a very different operational
technique from that used by present-day fighters, the weight
of which is already cut to the possible limits, having regard
to such considerations as equipment and armament, and
take-off and landing requirements.
It is pointed out that the increased complexity of the
modern fighter has brought with it very considerable rises in
cost and man-hours. The money which would buy 1,100
fighters in 1930 will now purchase fewer than 100, while the
man-hours needed to build a Hawker Hunter are over three
times those put into a last-war Hurricane. These considera
tions, of course, apply with special force to Great Britain,
where, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently observed,
"the planes, tanks and guns we are now making for our own
defence must have their cost matched by a corresponding
saving of taxes."
The problem of finding more skilled labour is of such
gravity and urgency as to require no further emphasis.
As usual, one of our uninhibited American contemporaries
supplies such information as is available on light-fighter
development in Great Britain. There is a reference in
Aviation Week to British alarm at the trend towards heavier
and more complex and expensive aircraft, and proposals
which have been submitted for a "stripped-down jet fighter
grossing only 5,000 lb." Rolls-Royce are said to have pro
posed a 3,000 lb thrust turbojet, weighing only 550 lb.
Another report refers to short-life turbojets made from
Coudron Cyclone (Renault inverted-vee).